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Monday, October 15, 2007

Thank you, Sir Menzies

Ming Campbell has done the right thing by resigning as leader of the Liberal Democrats.

It had become clear that, fairly or not - and politics often has little to do with fairness - his leadership had failed to fire the imagination of the press, the public or his own party. As Iain Duncan Smith remarked, and then proved, a new leader has own a short time before his image becomes fixed in the public mind for better or worse.

Having lived through the decline and fall of Charles Kennedy, his colleagues would probably not have had the stomach to force him from office. So he has done the party a great service by resigning gracefully.